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I've been poking around but I don't want to dwell to much on the subject because I'm afraid I'll stumble on some spoilers. I think I have decided to read the in the order of publication. What I haven't decided though is if I should read all the Foundation books first(in order of publication), or perhaps I should read all the Robot novels first(again in order of publication). Or, is it better to just read all 15 of them in order of publication regardless of what subseries they belong to?

What order did you read them in? What would you recommend for other first time readers of the series?

The three foundation books must be read in order of publication. The other books have back story and wrap up major themes but are not essential. The entire body of work including the Robot books and the post Foundation books written by different authors is one coherent story spanning tens of thousands of years of human history.

My experience is based primarily on these three series: Chronicles of Narnia, the Stainless Steel Rat, and Julian May's Galactic Milieux books.

In each instance, the books were written in one order, but take place in another. (Actually, technically, the Julian May books are written in rough chronological order, but time travel messes everything up, and the last five books are in the personal pasts of the characters in the first four.)

Thing is, in all three cases, the author assumes the reader has read the previously written books. So if you read them in strict chronological order, you're missing important references and, in a very real sense, getting the story out of order. Chronological order isn't always story order.

When they started selling Narnia in boxed sets with Magician's Nephew first, I was appalled.

When I was a kid, I was gifted a Narnia box set in chronological order. Knowing no better, and without direction, I started with Magician's Nephew. I didn't understand any of the plot or internal references, and decided the series wasn't something I was interested in.

It was only a decade later that someone told me I was reading them wrong.

I read them all in in-world chronological order except "Forward the Foundation". So, it was Robot short stories, Robot Novels, Foundation novels starting with Prelude (which doesn't spoil the ending imo). It worked all right for me...

I have my own personal order for reading these books, being a hybrid of publication order and internal chronological order.

The Robot novels work in order of internal chronology, as do the five Foundation books starting with 'Foundation' itself. However, the two Foundation prequels ('Prelude' and 'Forward') work better at the end of the series, ironically. Especially 'Forward the Foundation'. It was the last novel Asimov wrote, and the final scene of this book is a great way to end the series.